


Mi Corazon

by wildwordwomyn



Category: Moonlight (2016)
Genre: Black Family, Canon Queer Character of Color, Families of Choice, Father-Son Relationship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-09 03:13:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11095695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildwordwomyn/pseuds/wildwordwomyn
Summary: Juan reflects on his unconditional love for Chiron who is not his blood but belongs to him anyway.





	Mi Corazon

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Rewatched the movie tonight and had to write something from Juan's POV. The love in his eyes for Chiron is unexpected and yet it tugs at my own heartstrings. Even he seems surprised by how much Chiron becomes a part of him, which is just scary and beautiful at the same time.
> 
> 2\. English translation of the Spanish title: my love or my heart.

The day Juan meets Chiron he thinks, “Too small.” He thinks, “Too different.” He thinks the world will tear him apart, break him in two, chew him up and spit him out like trash. He thinks there is something about this one that does not belong in their world and he will learn that lesson at far too young an age if he hasn't learned it already. Juan wonders if his face lights up when he smiles, if he smiles at all. And he knows, deep down in the dark where no one else can see, not even Theresa, that he and this child are one.

 

“Mi corazón,” he whispers one night after Chiron has come to him for escape. He doesn't ask why, doesn't want to know, to be honest. He was supposed to forget himself but he remembers. He remembers everything, including the dirty Cuban streets and crystal blue waves, the musical language, the beauty he once called home.

 

“What that mean?” Chiron asks in his deep voice, deeper than any other child Juan has ever heard.

 

Juan looks down at him and smiles. Such sad eyes. Such old eyes to be so little. Chiron's darkness burns brighter than the sun. People will want to stomp it out, beat it out of the boy, he knows. He is just a man living only as he knows how. He won't last long. No one does in his business. That's the way it goes. But while he's here he'll do what he can to make sure Chiron knows he's not alone. That he's loved.

 

“Means it's time for you to go to sleep, Little Man.” He tucks the blankets up around Chiron's shoulders for warmth and stands up from the bed. “Me and Theresa be right down the hall if you need us, a'ight?”

 

“I know.”

 

Chiron doesn't return his smile but he does close his eyes, showing more trust than Juan deserves. He's here in Juan's guest bedroom because of the drugs Juan's boys have been selling to his mama. When Chiron turns over he takes that as his cue to leave and cracks the door behind him. He won't come to them in the night. He never does. But Juan wishes he would. Just to hold him one time, to keep him safe and warm in his arms the way a real father would.  
  


 

Once he and Theresa go to bed she'll sleep wrapped up in him. It won't be enough. She doesn't see him like Chiron does, doesn't make him want to be a better man or get out of the game like the boy in the other room does. He understands Chiron more than he's ever understood anyone else in his life, loves him with an unassuming abandon, would call him son and watch him grow into the man he sees in his eyes if he could. But he can't. Instead, he pulls Theresa closer, making sure she will in his place. It's the most he can do.

 


End file.
